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Abdelhamid Abaaoud
Abdelhamid Abaaoud (8 April 1987 – 18 November 2015) was a Belgian citizen of Moroccan descent who was the leader of an Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) cell in Belgium. He was the mastermind of the 2015 Thalys attack, an attack on a French Catholic church, and the November 2015 Paris attacks. Biography cleric]]Abdelhamid Abaaoud was born in 1987 in Molenbeek, Brussels, Belgium of Moroccan descent, the son of a store owner, and the brother of Younes Abaaoud. He was a Sunni Muslim, but he attended a Catholic school and rarely went to a mosque. However, Abaaoud pledged allegiance to the Islamic State in 2015 and fought in the Syrian Civil War, taking his 13-year-old brother with him. Later, he returned home to Europe and established an Islamic State terrorist cell in Molenbeek, which became a center of the Islamic State in the West. Abaaoud masterminded a plot to kill Belgian police officers in the country in revenge for their involvement in the Operation Inherent Resolve coalition against the Islamic State (and also to coincide with the aftermath of the Charlie Hebdo shooting and the Porte de Vincennes hostage crisis). However, on 15 January 2015 two of the members of his cell (Redouane Hagaoui and Tarik Jadaoun) were killed in a police raid on their apartment in Verviers, and Abaaoud attempted to flee to Greece. He escaped to Syria after the raids, and he became the leader of the Belgian terrorist cell. Abaaoud was said to have been the mastermind behind the 2015 Thalys attack on a high-speed train, and he was also said to be responsible for the November 2015 Paris attacks which killed 129 people. Abaaoud called the attackers on his cell phone and directed them in their attacks in Paris, and he even visited some of the crime scenes. Later, BBC reported that he was one of the shooters at the bars and restaurants in Paris. French authorities initially believed him to be in Syria and fighting against the Syrian Arab Republic, but he was actually holed up not far from the Stade de France, where three suicide bombings took place.His brother was killed in Iraq on 24 January 2018. Death At 4:20 AM on 18 November 2015, Abaaoud was targeted in a police operation in the Saint-Denis suburb of Paris despite reports that he was fighting in Syria. The police used heavy munitions in the attack, causing for a floor to collapse. There were five injuries on the French side, while a police dog named Diesel was killed by a suicide bomber in the apartment. Abaaoud's body was found riddled with bullets and grenade shrapnel. Seven other Islamic State members were captured in the raid, and DNA tests confirmed that Abaaoud was killed. It was initially believed that his cousin Hasna Aitboulahcen was the suicide bomber, but it was later discovered that the suicide bomber was a male, Chakib Akrouh. Category:1987 births Category:ISIL Category:Belgians Category:Moroccans Category:Sunnis Category:2015 deaths Category:Killed Category:Belgian Islamists Category:Islamists